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Updated: May 30, 2026
An Air-liquid Interface Bronchial Epithelial Model for Realistic, Repeated Inhalation Exposure to Airborne Particles for Toxicity Testing
Published on: May 13, 2020
Urban, traffic- related particles and lung tumors in urethane treated mice
Fernanda Alves Cangerana Pereira1, Miriam Lemos, Thais Mauad
1Department of Pathology, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Objective:
The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of urban, traffic-related, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on mice lung tumorigenesis under controlled exposure conditions.
Methods:
Four groups of female Swiss mice were treated with intraperitonial injections of urethane and saline solution. Urethane was used to start the carcinogenesis process. The animals were housed in two chambers receiving filtered and polluted air. In the polluted air chamber, pollutant levels were low. After two months of exposure, the animals were euthanized and lung tumoral nodules were counted.
Results:
Saline-treated animals showed no nodules. Urethane-treated animals showed 2.0+2.0 and 4.0+3.0 nodules respectively, in the filtered and non-filtered chambers (p = 0.02), thus showing experimental evidence of increased carcinogenic-induced lung cancer with increasing PM2.5 exposure.
Conclusion:
Our data support the concept that low levels of PM2.5 may increase the risk of developing lung tumors.
